View From a Hotel Window, 3/24/22: Iowa City
Posted on March 24, 2022 Posted by John Scalzi 9 Comments
And look! It’s a library!
(Actually I suspect it’s not a library anymore because there’s a newer library off camera to the left. But it was a library, once, and that counts.)
Tonight I’m at Prairie Lights bookstore, one of my favorites, and the festivities begin at 7pm. Tomorrow I’m at the St. Louis Public Library, also at 7pm. And then I go home! Wheee!
— JS
I was just thinking how much that reminds me of my town’s library (https://www.sterlingpubliclibrary.org/content/about-the-sterling-library.html).
It looks like they’re both Carnegie libraries, which might explain the very similar buildings (though Sterling’s is brick not stone).
It used to be the public library; I spent countless hours there, growing up, reading everything I could get my hands on. It was there that I discovered science fiction. The “new” library is just north of your hotel, across the pedestrian mall and the play structure.
That is a Carnegie Library building. That’s where I used to check out armloads of books as a child. Opened in 1904, expanded in 1963. They moved across the street to a new building in 1981.
Welcome back to Iowa City, John!
That looks like the view from The Hotel Vetro. Which is about 2.5 miles from where I’m sitting right now. My wife and I look forward to seeing you at Prarie Lights Bookstore this evening.
Read your post as, “Tonight I’m at Pirate Lights bookstore,” and wondered not about where they acquire books so much, as what the lighting in the store was like. Oil lamps? Bullseye lanterns? Heh.
Wishing you much fun and success on your tour!
See what happens if you can get a Delorean to go 88 mph past there ;)
If you have a chance in St. Louis, Mission Taco Joint has the best churros in town. A certain alien diplomat would love them.
See you tomorrow night!
Nice old limestone building surrounded on two sides by a newer pile of bricks. Kind of sad. Reminds me of the beautiful window office I had when I worked as a pharmaceutical engineer. Some years after I left the lab they built a brand new building within three feet of my old building, blocking the windows from a view of anything but a big, ugly metal wall. Kind of sad. Hope you’re enjoying your tour. Book is sensational!
Haven’t been in Iowa in a long time!